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Blog #6 - 10 Years
[8/8/24] Hard to believe it's been a decade since the first game released. Time really flies, I suppose.

Five Nights at Freddy's is something that I hold very dear to my heart, and I think it's safe to say it has changed my life. I really did grow up with these games, and seeing them grow alongside me has been wonderful. I still vividly remember how I got into FNAF. Back in 2015, I was looking for geometry dash on the appstore. I checked top paid, and FNAF 3 was at the top. Of course, I had seen the first and second games, but never really paid much attention to them. But the third one piqued my interest, so I researched it online. I was hooked instantly, and the rest is history.

These stories and characters have inspired me in my own creative endeavors, and being a part of this community and seeing what fans of this series can create has been a phenomenal experience. Trying to understand the lore, making fanart of the characters, watching animations, learning game mechanics and max mode strats, listening to fan songs, it's all been so much fun over the years. I've been around for all of the unbelievable highs and staggering lows of this series, and I have to say it's been an absolutely incredible journey; watching this franchise grow over the years has really been something special. Just this past week, realizing that there are now teams of people, game devs and artists and writers and actors, all working on not just games, but books and movies too is just amazing to me, especially when you consider how all of this started.

Earlier today, I was looking at some of the things that other people were making for the anniversary. One of them was a compilation of old fnaf videos, animations mainly, and it was really touching. Seeing all of those old videos, some of which I hadn't watched in years, all together really brought me back to the first year or two of this series. There really was a kind of magic back in the early days of this franchise, and being able to relive that on this tenth anniversary was really special. That being said, the future of the franchise is looking brighter than ever. The fanverse games are picking up steam again, Steel Wool has a new title coming up, the second movie is in production, there's a collab with Dead by Daylight, a racing game is in development; there's so much to look forward to in the future of this franchise. All this to say, I will always have fond memories of the early days of FNAF, but I couldn't be more excited and hopeful for what's to come.

I wish there was a better way for me to express my love for this franchise, but I feel like whatever I write won't do what I feel justice. I'll just say this anyways: I'm so glad Scott Cawthon decided to make just one more game. To think that all of this was the result of one single decision, one final attempt at game development, is truly incredible. The effect that this decision has had on my life and the memories I've made as a result are truly beautiful, and for that, I am thankful.

Happy 10 Years.



Study - Spring Bonnie
[8/2/24]
First time really doing something like this. I set a timer for one hour and tried to paint springbonnie to the reference. I think for a first attempt it went okay, although I'm not sure the brush and style I employed are really conducive to this kind of study. Color matching seems to be difficult for me. I started out just shaping the head, then the body, and then erased out the mouth, eyes, and bowtie. I was really prioritizing speed here; I only had one hour. The brush strokes are very messy and rushed, which helps with speed but looks a little too messy in some places. The eyes and eyelids in particular were very difficult to make. Also, the blue shading on the right arm doesn't look right. I think the main issue is the lack of three dimensionality. I think the most important thing for me to focus on is understanding how to illustrate that form. The best looking part is the head, although the direction and expression of the eyes seem to have been done incorrectly. The snout is also much smaller. The shapes of the ears are completely off as well. I think it would be helpful to do a study with just two colors and try to get the form down with that; maybe restricting my palette will make it more necessary for me to draw out that form better. I think I'll also ditch the time limit for now, opting to take my time and get it right, before moving onto speed and line confidence. I also don't think I was really painting to the reference. For example, the buttons on his chest are much more rectangular than in the reference, and I drew the scar on the left eye according to my personal springbonnie design, not what was actually in the reference image. I think next time I will have to focus on staying more true to the reference. Also, the shoulder are much more slack, leading to a much less imposing figure.

Overall, the image is recognizable, but it is very clearly a rushed and amateurish recreation. Moving forward, I should focus on understanding form and learning to draw what I see, not what I think I see.



Blog #5 - FNaF Books
[7/31/24] So FNAF has books. Quite a few, in truth. Most of them are pretty bad, but the idea itself has potential. For example, the idea of an expanded universe anthology series set in the FNAF universe sounds really cool, but the goosebumps-esque way they went about it with Frights left something to be desired. Not to mention all the debates over the canonicity of the things. Honestly, I don't really care whether or not Tales is canon; the mimic storylines are cool and there's nothing too egregious in there (as far as I can tell). My issue comes with Frights. Most of the stories in Frights really are just bargain bin goosebumps stories with fnaf tacked on. Like, I know this has already been done to death, but faz-goo just sucks on an unbelievable level. Whether or not FNAF has a good story is debatable; one thing that's certain is that it's unique. Frights does not feel unique; it's lacking a certain element that the original story had and it just comes across as lazy and half-baked.

Truth be told, I wouldn't mind reading a book to understand the story of the games, given the book is actually good. Like, give me a Mike novel and I would eat that up in approximately one single afternoon. Unfortunately, the only fnaf book I actually liked was the Silver Eyes (and the survival logbook I guess). The other two books in the novel trilogy were ok, Frights and Tales kind of suck, and while the upcoming choose-your-own-adventure books seem cute, I doubt they'll have any real substance to them. Also, there's like coloring books and whatevers but who cares about those.

Speaking of very clearly child-oriented FNAF books, there's an upcoming sticker book apparently. The stickerpedia. Honestly, it sounds kind of fun, and I might actually buy it when it comes out. I'm not really a sticker guy, but I could be, especially if there's like Ennard or Mike or Mimic stickers in there. That would actually be kind of cool. My main hope is that they have stuff from across the whole franchise, because I could really see them having a bunch of FNAF 1 and SB stuff and neglecting guys like Molten Freddy. I suppose we will just have to wait and see. Perhaps I am getting my hopes too high; after all, this is the same franchise that brought us a character encyclopedia that was missing a page for the main character (never getting over that).

Also, while we're on the topic of the encyclopedia, I had a cool idea for how to make that an in-universe book, like the logbook. What if the encyclopedia was made by Mike, chronicling all the animatronics he's encountered over the series. He would probably be writing it in the interim between SL and FNAF 3, probably just as a way to pass the time and distract himself, maybe updating it later after seeing Fazbear's Frights and the Pizzeria Simulator location. Obviously, this would mean a lot of animatronics wouldn't be included, since Mike couldn't know about them, and a lot of information about them would have to be excluded, so it wouldn't be like a replacement for the out-of-universe one. That being said, I think having Mike draw the animatronics in his red pen (he is a good artist, after all) and write little notes for each would be really cute and a fun bit of fleshing out his character. There could even be a little story told through the book. Like, imagine Mike starting a page on Golden Freddy then scribbling it out and hiding his last name and stuff and then the last few pages of the book are on Fredbear and the bite and him revealing he's Afton's son and stuff like that would be kind of sick. Anyways, just some thoughts.



Blog #4 - FNaF AU Ideas
[7/3/24] So I made a drawing about Nightmare yesterday, and I wanted to just mention the idea it's based on. Essentially, Nightmare is the crying child, like his spirit I guess. I think that would be really fitting for him, considering he's always portrayed as weak and gets pushed around by his brother but then he takes on this utterly monstrous form which makes for a good juxtaposition. Also I think the idea that Mike's brother is always with him in his dreams is really cool and also fits in with what the movie showed us. Anyways, that's about the extent of that idea; just a fun concept that I think would make sense from a story perspective. Anyways, I had another thought. So, people often complain about the sci-fi angle the newer games take, and while I do like the sci-fi stuff, I can see why people don't. So I thought, what if instead of Glitchtrap infecting Vanessa's mind through a VR game (that still doesn't make any sense btw), she gets possessed by the spirit of William Afton via a good-old-fashioned summoning ritual. It would make sense, considering William was being kept in purgatory or like a dream or something instead of actually going to hell; maybe that could have afforded him an opportunity to escape back to the physical world. Also, I know the idea of Vanessa being obsessed with Afton and being a copycat killer gets a lot of hate, but I think if done right it's still a really neat idea. Like it plays into the theme of digging up and past and glorifying it, and someone trying to mimic what they see is the next logical step to that. I think this would work best if Vanessa is only interested in Afton and the paranormal at first, being inspired by the ghost stories spun by the Fazbear company, but then once she actually gets into it and is possessed by William, she starts regretting her decision. I think that could allow for some good character development. Honestly, Vanessa would have been a much better protagonist than Gregory, but that's a conversation for another day. Anyways, Afton's spirit being summoned through an occult ritual, probably involving the remains of the springlock suit head (think Kylo Ren with Vader's mask) would make for some really cool imagery and an interesting way to bring the story back to its paranormal roots. My gripe with this, though, is that Afton would come back, and to be honest I think his story should end at UCN. Just a thought.



Blog #3 - Scary ass picture
[7/2/24]
aethos fnaf mix (real)



Blog #2 - Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Review
[7/1/24] Although this entry says it was written on July 1st, I actually wrote this review back when I first watched the movie, that being May 12th. I just decided to list it as being written today so as to keep consistency with the blog dates. Anyways, here's the review:

SPOILERS FOR KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

Just got back from Kingdom and I am very pleased to say it was very good! Planet of the Apes is currently 4 for 4 in films and the sequel bait at the end got me excited for the next one. I am also very pleased to say that the main characters were surprisingly engaging. I was skeptical of Noa and the others at first but the found family thing he, Raka, and Mae had was really fun. Raka in general was amazing he's one of the best characters in the film 100%, definitely fills the void Maurice left (upon his death I repeated the phrase, "#@!$ THIS MOVIE" repeatedly in my head for approx. 2 minutes). Speaking of which the cameos from the original characters at the beginning was a very welcome surprise to me, it was very nice seeing Maurice and Rocket one last time (didn't catch Bad Ape though, I might have just missed him). Proximus was also pretty good, not as good as Koba but that's a lot to expect. There's always the chance he comes back though; we never see his body (haha). Anyways, yeah Proximus was good, the dinner scene was good, and his death scene was satisfying. I do have to admit I was kind of surprised at how little screen time the guy had. He ended up being more of the overarching villain while his minions did most of the work I guess. Anyways, visual effects were par for the course, which is to say, amazing. The acting was also pretty good; Noa was a decent lead, Raka brought some comic relief, Proximus was intimidating, etc. The movie was also pretty interesting thematically; it had very prominent themes of religion and culture, and I think they were handled really well. I think the movie makes you ask yourself questions a lot more than the other movies; the feasibility of coexistence being brought up again and questioned by Noa and Mae was really interesting, as was the part where Mae kept the gun behind her back. I think the human-ape relationship is going to be very interesting to see develop in future movies. Anyways, yes it was a very good movie I think. I think it ranks higher than War and Rise, but I still think Dawn is my favorite.

I feel like Planet of the Apes is something that shouldn't work as well as it does. For a series of movies about talking apes, it's actually pretty thoughtful and takes itself just the right amount of serious. Combine that great writing with stellar visual effects and good direction, and you get a surprisingly high quality series of movies. I just hope that they don't get lazy with the future installments; so far Apes is on a really good streak with their movies and if they can keep it up and have 2 or even 3 trilogies with every entry being decent, that could be something really special I think.

VERDICT: pretty good :)



Blog #1
[7/1/24] Decided to reformat my website. I merged all of my writings into one page, which will now just be used for both blogs and creative writing projects. I've been doing quite a bit of writing for my own projects, but I just haven't posted any of it yet. Anyways, I finally made a new piece for the artwork gallery, my thoughts on which I already made clear in the commentary. I want to make one about the Mimic, but I haven't quite nailed down what I want it to look like yet. I want to have it be like Mimic in the foreground and his shadow is the shape of Springbonnie, maybe. I don't know. Either that or something with Nightmare. In any case, I hope to do a good bit of drawing this summer.



mike essay cut content
[3/16/24] ok so i'm working on the mike essay and i had like this section where i talked about like biblical allegory stuff but the main essay like the actual analysis stuff is getting really long and also this doesn't really fit the vibe of the rest of the essay so i decided just to cut it but i still really like some of the stuff i talked about so instead of just wasting it i'm going to put it here. quick note though, this is literally just copy pasted from the essay doc, so there's like references to stuff from earlier in the essay so just ignore that. ok enjoy

"ONE WHO IS LIKE GOD"
Earlier, I mentioned how Michael is a Hebrew name meaning, "Who is like God?" and how it connects to William. That led me down the rabbit hole of looking at Mike, and even just FNAF in general, through this biblical lens. I ended up finding a few wacky connections that I kind of love, but this section is some real crackpot stuff, so if you're just here for the genuine Michael Afton analysis, feel free to end your read here. Alright, to jump right in we have to address the immediate connection of Mike to the story of Cain and Abel. For those unaware, the story of Cain and Abel goes like this: Cain and Abel are two brothers, the sons of Adam and Eve. One day, the two bring offerings to God, with Abel's offering being viewed more favorably. Cain grows resentful, and brings Abel out into a field and kills him. After this, God curses Cain to be a restless wanderer of the earth, and places a mark upon him that deters people from killing him. Straight away, we can connect the fratricides; Cain is Mike and Abel is the younger brother, the latter being killed by the former. Next, Cain is cursed to restlessly wander the earth after his murder. Similarly, Michael is also restless after his brother's death, working for his father and unable to move on. He also literally wanders the earth in the shadows after being scooped, as described in his monologue. Lastly, the mark of Cain, both protecting him from death and shaming him before others, can be likened to how Michael "can't die" after being scooped, with his rotting purple skin being a fairly good way to exclude him from others. Now, this is all very cool, but what could it mean? Well, it might give some insight into why he bullies his younger brother in the first place. Cain grows to resent Abel because he feels as though he is being unfairly praised by God; Cain is jealous of Abel. Likewise, it's possible that Mike was jealous of his younger brother. We can infer that William practiced favoritism with his children, considering he creates Baby "just for [Elizabeth]", while literally sending Michael to his death when he got the chance. Therefore, it is likely that Michael became jealous of the attention and love his younger brother was getting, and lashed out. I also think William's favoritism inadvertently being the cause of the entire story is interesting; the irony of misguided love being the root of so much evil is fun to think about. Also, I have to mention that this has always been a fairly popular theory, and I don't think we needed biblical analysis to figure it out, but it's a fun detail nonetheless.
Next up, I have to bring up something I've been playing around with in my mind for a while. Essentially, Michael Afton is the Christ. Kind of. Not really. Here's the deal; in Sister Location, Mike's journey somewhat parallels the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. Granted, Mike isn't exactly a teacher like Jesus was, but he definitely fits the "sacrificial lamb" role pretty well. To begin, Mike was sent by his father to go down into the bunker and save his sister. Likewise, Jesus was sent by God to go down to earth and save the sinners. Now, I know I just said Mike going to the bunker was a parallel to Jesus coming to earth, but honestly to me the elevator ride down to the sister location is more evocative of Jesus' descent into Hell/Purgatory to free the souls trapped there. Maybe it could be both, I dunno. Anyways, Michael is also obviously sacrificed so that the sinners (Ennard) can be saved. Those who were saved were called to live as Jesus did; Ennard very much lived like Michael did (at least for a while). Jesus was also resurrected, just as Mike was, with them both returning to their fathers in a way. Finally, the return of both Jesus and Michael signify the end times; the second coming of the Christ and the final fire for Mike. Now again, we have to ask, what does any of this even mean? Honestly, as far as I can tell, not much. Like I said, this is some real crackpot stuff, so other than those surface level comparisons I don't think Mike really works as a Christ allegory, especially when you consider literally every one of his appearances other than Sister Location. Either that or I've stumbled upon something amazing and I'm too stupid to realize it.
Finally, the last thing I noticed has to do with the timeline. If FNAF 6 really does take place in 2023, that means it is exactly 40 years after 1983; 40 years after the Bite. Immediately, those familiar with religious texts will take note of the number 40, most famously being the amount of years the Israelites wandered the desert as a punishment from God. This made me think of Michael's restlessness throughout his 40 years as well, as he too was forced to essentially wander, unable to take control of his own life, as discussed in an earlier section. This could also be seen as a sort of cosmic punishment for his actions, like how the Israelites were punished for disobeying God. It's only at the end of those 40 years that he reaches the promised land; Michael finally gets peace in the aftermath of the final fire. Believe me, I realize that this is a very surface level connection, and the whole "40 is significant in the bible" thing could be used to liken Michael's journey to so many other things but I have to admit I like the idea that Mike was sort of cursed from that day in 1983 forward. It adds this certain supernatural element of destiny to the story that I feel is really interesting and I haven't really thought about for FNAF before.
One last thing, I want to mention Elizabeth's name. This isn't an Elizabeth essay, I know, but this is actually a pretty neat detail and I didn't know where else to put it, so I'll address it here. Elizabeth is a Hebrew name meaning, "God is my oath" or "pledged to God." There exists a few different translations, but the main point is being devoted to or loving God. Elizabeth is obviously portrayed as William's loyal apprentice, willing to to anything to make her father proud, so her name literally meaning "pledged to God" is rather fitting, especially considering the whole William-God connection we discussed earlier. Alright, that just about ends my ramblings. Hope you enjoyed that.



CBEAR Raid News Report
[2/17/24]
NEW HARMONY-HURRICANE AREA NEWS BROADCAST
GRISLY TRUTH BEHIND LOCAL ROBOTICS COMPANY
OCT 11 2003 2:48 P.M.

Local business, "Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental," has been shut down in the aftermath of a police investigation that occurred several nights ago. Police were called to the facility when three late-night technicians were reported missing after failing to return from their shifts. Upon entering the establishment, authorities discovered the bodies of two technicians hanging from the ceiling, with evidence of foul play. The third technician was unable to be found and is presumed dead, as human remains not belonging to either of the two aforementioned technicians were found strewn about the premises and otherwise lodged in machinery. Investigations into the odd circumstances of these deaths are ongoing. Additionally, the four animatronic entertainers used in the establishment were nowhere to be found. Fragments of their shells were found scattered about the facility, with attempts to utilize their security tag tracking system proving unsuccessful. Their whereabouts are currently unknown. Additionally, evidence was found at the site that suggests William Afton, founder of Afton Robotics and cofounder of Fazbear Entertainment, was not only responsible for the deaths of 5 children in 1985 and one child in 1983, but also kidnapping and experimenting on several other children over the course of nearly 15 years. Upon discovery of this evidence, federal authorities became involved and an arrest warrant was put out for William Afton, who has been missing for the past 5 years. If you have any information as to where William Afton may be, please call immediately. Additionally, blueprints of the animatronic characters were found at the facility, and investigation into said blueprints revealed that the robots were likely created for the purpose of abducting and possibly killing children. Employees of the company are being questioned as to potential involvement in the situation. Remaining assets of Afton Robotics Limited Liability Corporation are in the process of being liquidated or otherwise seized by federal authorities, with the company itself set for dissolution by the end of the month. This story is rapidly evolving, and new details will be reported as they are discovered. Stay tuned, and stay safe.